Thoughts on Life, Love, Politics, Hypocrisy and Coming Out in Mid-Life

Thursday, March 09, 2017

Hospitals and Health Groups Denounce GOP Healthcare Bill

Ready to screw over working class families

To the surprise of few, the Republican Party's proposed replacement for the Affordable Health Care Act is a true abortion and despite the bloviating - translate lies - of Republicans, the plan would leave millions without the ability to secure coverage. Two of the components Congressional Republicans blather about the most are basically worthless to lower income Americans: (i) tax credits, and (ii) health savings accounts ("HSA"). If you aren't making much money and are paying little in taxes, giving you a tax credit goes nowhere near providing the funds to purchase healthcare coverage. The same more or less goes with having an HSA. If you don't have the funds to fund the account - and most working class Americans don't - you are left with nothing. In short, the GOP message to many Americans is that if you get sick, just go ahead and die. As Congressman Joe Kennedy III noted, the plan is the reverse of the Gospel message Republicans falsely claim to honor. The New York Times looks at the condemnation coming from hospitals - some of which would likely go into bankruptcy under the GOP plan - and other health care groups. Here are excerpts:

Influential groups representing hospitals and nurses came out on
Wednesday against a Republican bill to repeal and replace the
Affordable Care Act, joining doctors and the retirees’ lobby to warn that it
would lead to a rise in the uninsured.

In a letter to lawmakers, major hospital
groups wrote, “As organizations that take care of every individual who walks
through our doors, both due to our mission and our obligations under federal
law, we are committed to ensuring health care coverage is available and
affordable for all.”

The groups, including the
American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges,
the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the Children’s
Hospital Association, said they could not support the bill “as currently
written.”

The
hospitals and the American Nurses Association joined the American Medical
Association and AARP, which rejected the bill on Tuesday.

Squeezed between wary health care providers and angry conservatives who believe that the
bill leaves too much of the Affordable Care Act in place, the Republican
leadership and President Trump appear to be facing an uphill climb.

But the White House appears
increasingly confident about the prospects for a health care overhaul to pass in the House.
In a meeting with conservative leaders in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Mr.
Trump said he anticipated the most trouble in the Senate, where moderate and
conservative lawmakers are opposing the plan for different reasons. He said he
was prepared to pressure holdout senators by holding the kind of stadium-style
rallies he led during his presidential campaign.

The
array of groups taking strong positions against the bill is evidence that its
potential consequences extend far beyond health insurance coverage, to much of the
nation’s economy.

The
congressional Joint Committee on Taxation issued estimates this week showing
how much revenue the government could lose starting in 2018 under the
Republican bill, which the party has called the American Health Care Act, as a
result of repealing taxes on drug makers (nearly $25 billion over 10 years),
insurers (nearly $145 billion), makers of medical devices (nearly $20 billion),
and high-income households (more than $270 billion from taxes on earned income
and investment income).

The A.M.A., which has nearly 235,000 members and calls itself the
voice of the medical profession, sent a letter to leaders of the two committees
on Tuesday saying it could not support the Republican bill “because of the
expected decline in health insurance coverage and the potential harm it would
cause to vulnerable patient populations.”

In particular, the group
said it opposed a plan to replace the sliding, income-based premium tax credits
provided under the Affordable Care Act with fixed credits based on age. The
current system, it said, “provides the greatest chance that those of the least
means are able to purchase coverage.”

America’s
Health Insurance Plans, the health insurance lobby, released its own lengthy
statement on Wednesday. In a letter to the leaders of the House committees that
drafted the bill, Marilyn B. Tavenner, the group’s chief executive, warned
Republican leaders that their plans to change Medicaid financing, among other
things, could harm coverage and care.

A
day earlier, AARP — the association of middle-aged and older Americans that is
another crucial supporter of the Affordable Care Act — declared its opposition
to the bill and even started running an ad against it. In a letter to Congress,
the group said the bill would increase health costs for people ages 50 to 64,
could lead to cuts in Medicaid coverage of long-term care and would allow
insurers to charge older people five times as much as younger ones.

There was also a creeping concern about how quickly the bill was
moving. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, essentially
promised to move the bill to the Senate floor without the hearings and other
processes that are normal for such a far-reaching piece of legislation. He had
promised when Republicans took the majority that they would honor normal Senate
processes and traditions.

“I think if that’s the approach they take,” Mr. Rubio said, “they
won’t have the votes in the Senate.”

Note the $270 billion tax cut to high income households and huge cuts to insurance companies. That is what this bill is really all about. Working class whites who fell for the GOP's appeals to racism, bigotry and religious extremism are about to learn that the GOP cares nothing about them and is going to f*ck them over thoroughly. I have no pity for these people if this happens. They did this to themselves and deserve to suffer greatly.

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Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
In the career/professional realm, I am affiliated with Caplan & Associates PC where I practice in the areas of real estate, estate planning (Wills, Trusts, Advanced Medical Directives, Financial Powers of Attorney, Durable Medical Powers of Attorney); business law and commercial transactions; formation of corporations and limited liability companies and legal services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community, including birth certificate amendment.

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